Random Encounters: Recent Highlights in Gaming News

Whether you still think of him as Sulu, or simply the de facto king of the internet, George Takei has certainly made a name for himself with the youngsters. He takes his open-minded class and sense of humour over to Geek & Sundry's gaming series Co-Optitude for a round of Mario Party 4 with Felicia Day. He may be a little inexperienced at the game, but damned if he isn't a good sport.

When I first saw 3D designer Christopher Behr's incredible rendering of the town of Onett from the SNES game Earthbound, I assumed I was looking at an actual miniature model town he'd crafted in real life. It's so toy-like, and the lighting is so well done -- it's as if one could reach in a pick up these cute, little figures. Boy oh boy, do I even dare imagine what it might be like to see these scenes animated, or even play a version of the game with graphics like these?

As Kotaku's Jason Schreier points out, there is a suspicious familiarity to a Japanese advertisement for 3DS title The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. And that familiarity is... rap! As the game is a sequel of sorts to the SNES's A Link to the Past, I guess Nintendo thought it would be fun to reference that game's original television commercial as well. I'm glad they did, because that commercial is awesome. I wish more game ads had costumes and monsters and choreographed dancing...

No, it's not April 1st. This is real. Dynasty Warriors developer Tecmo Koei is teaming up with Nintendo to produce what looks to be a very combat-heavy new concept for everyone's favourite green tunic-wearing hero. Not the worst idea in the world, but I sure found it unexpected. At least he doesn't appear to be fighting in ancient China, and after Solid Snake appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, anything goes!

Yesterday, Nintendo announced the existence of a new game for the Wii U eShop. They also announced that it is totally out, right now. NES Remix is a mishmash of bite-sized challenges that present segments of gameplay from several classic NES games, altered with novel quirks or specialized goals.